A/N: This is a pretty short chapter, and also the last we will see of Alex for a while. The next chapter will deal with our heroes at Hogwarts. That update will also be arriving very soon.
Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter
CHAPTER 12
Nymphadora Tonks sighed loudly, not even caring if anyone heard her. She was bored out of her mind.
She was beginning to hate her job, and she had started just two months ago.
"No", she thought, "you don't hate your job,Tonks; snap out of it. You were the one who fought with your mum over this. It was your dream to become an auror, you can't quit now."
"Well, you look deep in thought", said a deep voice.
Snapping out of her reverie, Tonks smiled at her partner, Kingsley Shacklebolt. She then pouted and said, "Bored is more like it."
Kingsley chuckled and said, "Not for long." Seeing Tonks' curiousity, Kingsley continued, "Robards got a report about an ongoing altercation at Gringotts. Five wizards apparently, duelling at the lobby."
"It's stopped, then?"
Kingsley looked at her and stonily and said, "No, still ongoing..."
"How long?"
"At least 15 minutes.", Tonks couldn't help but raise her eyebrows in surprise, " Dawlish is asking for at least 10."
"Isn't that overkill?" she asked.
"Under normal circumstances, maybe", said Kingsley, "but it seems that the lobby is almost half destroyed. Also, widespread panic around Diagon alley. Ten aurors is a minimum at least."
Kingsley stopped his briefing, looked at her sharply and asked, "You up for some crowd control?"
Hearing it, Tonks was ready to protest, but then a sobering thought crossed her mind. She was just a two month old auror, and even if she wanted to admit or not, she was clumsy. All things considered, she would only get in the way.
"Sure", she said shrugging, "I was getting bored anyway."
Surprised, Kingsley remarked, "I expected a more snarky response, you know?"
Tonks chuckled and said, "I know, but no point in arguing. After all the trouble I've caused over the last two cases, I am surprised Dawlish even wants me in something as simple as crowd control."
At this point the pair had already started walking towards the elevator. They would be meeting with Dawlish and the rest of the team in the lobby. As the elevator started moving down to the Atrium Kingsley said," Actually, Dawlish didn't want you for this."
Tonks didn't even look surprised. She just gave an affectionate smile at him and said, "Thanks, Kingsley."
HPARSGDG
Alex felt dizzy. He barely had the time to cast the spell and roll over quickly before the chandelier fell with a crash.
He was short of breath, and pretty sure his shoulder was hurting even worse than before.
"Need to get out of here; can't face an auror squadron in this state." he thought soberly. Beginning to walk gingerly towards the entrance, he tried to calm his jumbled up thoughts
If the aurors saw him in this state, he would be hauled in for questioning, and Alex couldn't risk being discovered.
"Sure did a bang up job of being low-key, huh?" he asked himself sarcastically.
Apparating was out of the question, he knew, as the aurors would have erected anti-apparition wards near the entrance.
As he came close to the entrance he heard the excited mutterings of the crowd, and the aurors trying to keep the crowd under control. Then he was hit by a brainwave.
"Okay, this is a bad idea", Alex muttered, "but it might just be the best of the lot right about now."
HPARSGDG
Tonks was standing with Kingsley at the stairs leading towards the entrance. The crowd standing at the foot of the stairs was panicking.
"Where is Dawlish?" she heard Kingsley ask.
Tonks looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
" Didn't he just go in?"
"Yes and…."
Kingsley's words were drowned by an explosion directly behind them. Tonks saw the door blown off and suddenly heard the sound of a crash, and something heavy falling.
"What was that?" she thought, and looked at Kingsley.
Silently agreeing, they both sprinted towards the entrance. Kingsley was in front of her and she then heard him exclaim, "Oh Shit!"
"Kingsley?" she asked running in, and then suddenly felt something hit her on the side. Almost losing her balance, she turned around, her wand outstretched. Something had pushed her. But what?
"What happened?" she shouted.
"The entire chandelier's fallen on them, Tonks.", he shouted back, "I need some help dragging them out!."
Tonks began to move in, and then suddenly saw something on the ground that had her pause midstep.
Drops of blood leading away from the lobby.
The drops led her outside; and then she saw a new drop appear near the staircase. And another. And another.
Raising her wand, she shouted, "Homenum Revelio!"
The spell hit on target, and she saw an outline of a man shimmer. Suddenly the man appeared, apparently removing the disillusionment charm himself. The other aurors looked back, dumbfounded to see the newcomer.
"Do not move a muscle, you hear me?" Tonks shouted, "Turn towards me, now!"
She saw the man's muscles sag, a shrug on his shoulders, and then he turned towards her.
Tonks saw the man's face completely dust covered, his right leg wounded, his left hand hanging limply from the side. But his eyes, she noted, were still sharp, alert, a piercing grey.
"Drop your wand, now."
The man didn't even move a muscle. On the contrary, he examined her up and down, as if she was an object of his curiousity.
"Drop your goddamn wand, or I promise you, this situation will escalate pretty quickly."
"Let's hope that doesn't happen, shall we?" said the man smiling crookedly.
Confused, Tonks didn't even see the wand appear on his hand, and before she could react, he closed his eyes, pointed his wand up, and shouted, "LUMOS SOLEM!"
Tonks didn't even have time to close her eyes; she was just able to turn her head back a fraction, before a bright incandescent light suddenly erupted from the wand, cloaking the entire area, and almost blinding her. She could hear the screams of the other aurors, as they were suddenly exposed to the bright light.
HPARSGDG
He couldn't walk anymore. The last spell had drained him, which shouldn't have, but it basically made him realise what a fucked up position he was in. He turned right towards an empty alley, and suddenly slipped and fell headfirst on the wet asphalt.
Raising himself up with a lot of difficulty, he sat leaning against the wall. The bleeding was not stopping; and even though the shoulder had stopped hurting, his entire hand had gone numb. He wanted to close his eyes so bad. But he was scared.
Would he wake up again? Or would he just die of exhaustion?
Magic could heal him, but he was completely drained. He needed to rest, to replenish the magic. It was risky, him lying out in the open, just waiting for the aurors to find him. Unless they were too disoriented to figure out where he was, in which case, he was safe to just lay here. And die.
He laughed. This was definitely not the way he had thought his last moments would be, wounded, battered, lying in a deserted alley, failing his mission, because of one bad decision.
Maybe he deserved it, for thinking that he was smart enough to figure everything out on his own. That just because he was above average in mental faculties and intelligence, it made him comparable to the genius his father actually was. In that moment, he hated and admired his father even more than he thought he ever could.
Even after his death, the man was still alive; or he would be soon enough. And Alex might have been the only one capable of mildly obstructing that; but all of that, all the planning, all those classes, the training, all in vain.
Alex suddenly saw something coming in front of him. A huge black form. He realised it was a huge hound; or was it a cereberus?
No, cereberus had three heads.
It was the Grim, He realised. It might be a hallucination, or it might be a sign.
He looked at the hound, and saw his strangely expressive brown eyes, as if the hound was wondering what to do with him.
"Oh don't worry m'dear Grim", he said laughing, "I am coming with you."
He then closed his eyes, and let his head fall back, letting the darkness swallow him up whole.
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